HUNTERSVILLE, N.C.—Denny Hamlin can’t do any rehab to make his back heal any quicker. He has to walk periodically, wear a back brace and wait. And hope.

While he says his pain level is “80 percent” better than when he initially suffered a compression fracture in his back March 24, Hamlin still feels 100 percent of the sickness of knowing he will have to sit out races.

His doctors said last week it would take an estimated six weeks to heal. That means five races with him not coming back until May 11 at Darlington.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver, though, remains hopeful he could return two weeks earlier for the April 27 race in Richmond, his hometown track.

“As long as they see that crack (in the vertebra), they can’t let me go,” Hamlin said Wednesday. “My goal is somehow magically my body is strong and tough and personal I would like to come back at Richmond. … Ultimately, every doctor I’ve spoke to has left it as a possibility that you could heal quicker than six weeks.

“It’s possible. It’s absolutely possible. (But) they thought that six weeks actually was an aggressive comeback.”

Hamlin is working with two experts in the racing field. Dr. Jerry Petty in North Carolina has been the doctor for NASCAR drivers for years. Dr. Terry Trammell in Indianapolis has guided several IndyCar drivers’ return to racing after back injuries.

The 32-year-old Hamlin is doing rehab to keep up his physical endurance and also wearing a brace in hopes that by keeping his back from twisting, the bone will heal quicker. He can walk around and feels as if he could race, but he can’t risk taking a hit and suffering a spinal cord injury from vertebrae breaking apart.

“This one is not a pain tolerance injury,” Hamlin said. “This is a ‘we need to protect you from you injury’ that they have to look out and make sure that I don’t harm myself further and really jeopardize my career in the long term.

“So I can respect that and obviously no one season is worth changing your whole life over. If it’s four weeks or six weeks or it’s 12, I’m just going to have to accept it.”

In a couple of weeks, Hamlin will return to the doctor’s office for another scan of his L1 vertebra to see if the compression fracture has started to heal.

Hamlin suffered the injury when his car slid head-on into an inside wall at Auto Club Speedway. The wall was not equipped with a SAFER Barrier.

The team and NASCAR is still evaluating the performance of the car’s safety mechanisms. Hamlin, who had not received the impact data, said he did not think any components of the new car contributed to his injury but did say that he could not remember tightening his belts late in the race, meaning he might have been sunk down in his seat at the time of the accident.

“The only thing I could think is why this happened is possibly I came out of my seat and then back down into it,” Hamlin said. “Honestly, I don’t remember a whole lot about the actual impact itself because I just closed my eyes when I went to hit the wall and then I remember the instant snap of the back.

“So I think NASCAR is trying to figure out how I got a compression fracture because ultimately you would be lunging forward and expanding and not compressing. It had to be on the recoil that I got it.”

Although he has had previous back problems, those occurred in his L4 and L5 vertebrae (lower in the back than his current injury). Hamlin does not believe the previous problems contributed but says the accident has caused them to flare up. With the compression fracture, he is unsure what pain is because of that and what pain could be from aggravating previous injuries.

Hamlin considers himself very lucky. He did not suffer a concussion. In the follow-up exams, he was diagnosed with a heart murmur that doctors believe is genetic and should cause him no problems.

“I really think that given my circumstance, I was very lucky that this fracture was just literally like taking a knife and just slicing right through my spine and luckily my spine stayed perfectly in line,” Hamlin said.

“It did not shift or anything like that.”

Hamlin will be replaced by Mark Martin this weekend at Martinsville Speedway—another Hamlin favorite track—and then by Brian Vickers until Hamlin returns.

Once Hamlin returns, he will figure out what he will need to do to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Currently 10th in points and winless, it would be extremely tough to get back in the top 10 for an automatic spot. But with two spots going to drivers 11th to 20th in the standings based on how many wins they have during the season, Hamlin has a mathematical possibility to earn one of those two wild-cards if he comes back with 16 races left in the regular season before the 10-week Chase.

“If we’re going to make the playoffs, it’s kind of like the (NBA’s) Lakers—you get so far behind and then they know they have to make up X amount of ground to even be part of the conversation later,” Hamlin said.

“Our Chase would have to start with 26 races to go. … I can be certain to tell you that if it is at all possible when I get back in, I will be on a mission to make it.”

Hamlin doesn’t want his chances of making the Chase to determine when he returns.

“I don’t want the chance at a championship to decide when I get back in the car,” Hamlin said.

“I want to do it when it’s most safe. I want to do it when everyone—doctors and NASCAR—is comfortable with me getting in the car and not just, ‘OK, if we don’t get in this week then our season is done’ and then you rush into something that you shouldn’t.”